Olympus Reads
by EmpressDaria
Summary: Various popular characters are sent back in time to read the PJ series with the gods. Not all is what it seems, though. The fates have used this as a time to let the heroes rest in the middle of the Gaea war. Annabeth and Percy have been taken out of Tartarus for a short time to read as well, but for them to stay, Percy has to bear a terrible curse. Enjoy it while you can, heroes.
1. Chapter 1

**Olympus**

We could start this story with saying how the Olympians were argueing about all of their usual arguments, but that is a given with all of the gods, so I will start when the demigods appeared.

**Percy POV Olympus**

The last thing I remembered was laying down to sleep next to Annabeth in Tartarus. Maybe we had been really close to the doors and somebody found us when our group was closing them and took us out. I couldn't tell because I couldn't open my eyes because I had been in the dark so long that the light from around me was way too bright for me to open my eyes. I think Annabeth was having the same problem next to me because she was gripping my hand harder now and I could feel her moving her head around.

"Where are we Percy? Are we still in Tartarus?"

"I don't know Wise Girl. I can't see anything. It's too bright."

"Me neither."

**Poseidon POV**

As I argued with Athena, a bright light immediately filled the room and three pairs of people appeared on the throne room floor. Three of them looked to be about 17 or 18, while the other three looked to be about 14 to 15. Although the first pair looked like they could have been in the middle of a grueling quest because they were cut up and lacerated with only a few large injuries, like a slash on the face, but they were also incredibly pale and dirty. I had never seen people that looked as bad as this on a quest.

"Who are you demigods?" Zeus loudly asked so that he could wake them up. They all woke up with a start, except for the two really dirty ones. They kept sleeping; I don't know how anybody could sleep through such a noise, believe me, I have tried.

"I am Thalia, daughter of Zeus. But you already know me, right?"

"No, I have never seen or heard of you before. Why do you think I should know you?"

"Well, I am your daughter, and I have seen and talked to you before. I doubt you could have forgotten about us this quickly, it has only been two weeks since the war ended!" Thalia was speaking heatedly now, but thankfully for the gods, the shaggy, black – haired boy that had been laying next to her, figured out what was going on and placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her.

"I am Nico DiAngelo, Ghost King, son of Hades. Though I was born before the pact and placed in the Lotus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. And Thalia, I think we may have been sent back in time, it must be before we were all born, except maybe me and Hazel." Nico turned and addressed the gods again, "What year is it currently?"

"It is 1940, what year are you from?" Zeus was surprised that the boy figured out what had occurred just a few minutes ago before Athena.

"That makes sense. We are from 2013. This is even before I was born! Though Hazel was born in 1942, so she is from this time. Cool. What should we do now? I don't know why we were sent here." Nico and the demigods that were awake looked just as confused as the gods as to why they were present.

After people just stood there in the same spot fidgeting for about ten minutes, a note came down and fell on the sleeping boy's stomach. He immediately jumped and a bronze sword appeared from what seemed to be nowhere. He looked around for a couple of seconds, but appearently he couldn't see anything because he squinted his eyes and had to shut them, but kept his sword at the ready, not letting his guard down just because he couldn't see anything.

I seemed that Thalia, Nico, and the other demigods that hadn't been introduced knew who they were and rushed over to him. When he heard the noises coming towards he shouted, "Stay back, whatever is there, I can take you all down!" He slashed wildly and the demigods had to all jump back to avoid the swipe.

Thalia spoke up, "Percy, calm down, you recognize me right? I know it has been a while since I saw you. Why do you look like that? And you need to wake up Annabeth and both of you need to say your name and title. We are in the gods' throne room."

"Why are we in the throne room? Last I remember Annabeth and I are fighting in -"Percy was about to say Tartarus, but a box and note tied to a parachute land in front of him. He picks it up and turns to the gods as he reads it.

**To the gods and demigods,**

**The demigods have been sent back in time so that they can read the books about the young hero Percy Jackson. The books will appear in order so you don't have to worry about that. The gods cannot hurt the demigods, and the demigods cannot harm each other. Percy must recite his FULL title, including achievements, along with Annabeth. Also, because of when and where Annabeth and Percy were taken from, they have a curse. Any pain they feel in the books, they will feel while reading, exactly how it felt to them then. We thought you should do this because the group of demigods that just came need a break from what is going on in their time. You are in Olympus, so you can go anywhere you want to there, but you cannot go anywhere else, including the gods. Time outside you is frozen. Try to get the books done in about a week each, less time if you can. We would like to keep the time frozen for as short of a time as we can. **

**Good Luck,**

**The Fates**

Percy was quiet for a few minutes, then he let out a small, defeated sigh, and bent down, to who we guessed was Annabeth, and gently shook her. She bolted awake and grabbed for something at her waist, but before she could get to it, Percy grabbed her wrist. He leaned down to her level and whispered quietly into her ear and handed her the note. Annabeth gave the same sigh as Percy then stood up and faced the gods with Percy.

"I am Perseus 'Percy' Jackson. Defeater of the Minotaur twice, Echidna, and, ummm….. a bunch of others, Wanderer of the Labyrinth, Hero of Olympus, Praetor of New Rome, and so far a survivor of Tartarus, son of Poseidon." Percy had his head held high during his introduction, but you could tell he didn't like all of the titles. His voice was strained when he said that he was a survivor of Tartarus so far. All of the gods in the room gasped when he said that, but the other demigods besides Annabeth gave him sorrowful looks.

"Annabeth Chase, defeater of many creatures, like Percy, wanderer of Labyrinth, savior of Olympus, Architect of Olympus, survivor of Tartarus so far, and daughter of Athena." Annabeth said her title in much the same way as Percy, except with a bit more pride in her voice. The gods were still shocked by the end of their titles, so nobody said anything.

To break the silence, the rest of the demigods introduced themselves.

"Leo Valdez, one of the seven, fire user, son of Hephaestus."

"Jason Grace, one of the seven, son of Jupiter."

"Piper McLean, one of the seven, Charmspeaker, daughter of Aphrodite."

The gods looked around the room until their eyes settled on Percy and Annabeth, then Zeus asked, "Where were you that it was so difficult for the Fates to pull you out?" Both Percy and Annabeth's eyes darkened at the question.

"We were pulled from Tartarus. I am not going to say anything about it, and you had better not even think about asking Annabeth." Percy still hadn't removed his hand from Annabeth's waist and he held on tighter when he said Tartarus. Annabeth shook her head in agreement.

"What should we do now? Should we start now, or in the morning?" Athena asked, always wanting to know the exact schedule.

"In the morning. I haven't had a decent nights sleep in days!" Percy and Annabeth both looked wiped, and they probably could have fallen asleep on their feet if they stood there for a few more minutes.

"Okay, well I can show the demigods to their room, since there are so few, I will take them to the big 'apartment' so that they can all have their own room. Follow me little ones!" Hermes got up and walked to the door as he laughed at his own joke.

The demigods followed silently, none of them had had a good sleep in a while, so they were already daydreaming about the feel of a long, nice sleep. They eventually arrived at their room. When they walked in through the big mahogany door, they didn't even pay attention to the walls lined with gaming systems, TV's, games, movies, and the huge kitchen with the filled bridge. Each of them just went to the door with their name on it. Percy and Annabeth both looked reluctant to leave each other's side, but they did eventually after Percy gave Annabeth a nice little kiss on the cheek before practically running into his door and falling on the bed.

**Percy POV**

I had only been asleep for a few minutes before I felt a body slide into the bed with me. I didn't even have to ask who it was. I knew it was Annabeth. She didn't turn over to look at me to see if I was awake and listening, she knew I would be, before saying, "Can I stay with you? I had a terrible nightmare, about you know what, and I couldn't fall asleep."

"Of course Annabeth, you don't have to ask. I will know why." And with that we both fell asleep. We both had fitful dreams that night where we would wake up often and thrash around, but it was so much better because the other was there to comfort. That was the best night we had had in a while.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the reviews guys, I won't do many AN's, but I felts like I should say thank you for the support and the criticism I got in the reviews. It is all needed and all appreciated. I will say that I will try for Percabeth fluff, but that isn't really my area of expertise, though I will try, and I hope that my writing will grow the more I write, so that should progress more. Tell me if you think my characters get too far away from how they were written. Also, sorry it took so long to update. I have a lot of incredibly tiring and hard summer soccer training and I had trouble making the voice of Annabeth and Percy right for my story. They needed to be more serious/cautious/aware/reactive than they were before tartarus. An experience like that can change them. They also needed to still be funny like before. Anyway, on with the story. **

**Chapter 2**

**Percy POV**

Annabeth and I woke up with more sleep than we had gotten in a while, but we could still use some more. The only reason we'd woken up in the first place was because we couldn't go back to sleep with all the nightmares. It was 10:00 anyway, so our friends would be wondering what was taking us so long, and I didn't want them to worry.

When we got up, Annabeth went back to her room to shower and change while I did the same. My shower was amazing, it was almost as if we had never been to Tartarus, but you could still see all of the scars, we couldn't just wash those away. We both met back up in the main room, and grabbed as much food as we could carry on a plate and walked to the throne room. Thalia and Nico were sitting together talking with a small plate of food for the each of them. They looked up and smiled at us when we sat down with them. Jason, Piper, and Leo were off a little ways talking and we wanted to see Nico and Thalia since we hadn't truly been able to talk to them in forever without talking about the fate of the world. We were updated on all of the going ons at camp and Thalia made sure we knew that everybody at camp was worried sick for us, even Clarisse.

Eventually the gods arrived, they didn't say anything, but they looked to be in pretty decent moods today, Athena and Poseidon kept looking at Annabeth and me, but they didn't say anything, so we didn't either. Zeus picked up the book from the bronze brazier and lifted up while he announced, "I think we should start reading now, we will learn more about you demigods as the book progresses. I would like to say welcome now though, and you can take a seat in the chairs before you now."

Zeus then sat down and nine small but elegant chairs appeared, circling the brazier and Hestia tending to it. He lifted the book to his eyes and began to read, not waiting for us to all sit down.

**Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief**

**I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**

"I am going to add that to my list of things that I had never heard before now." Apollo stated, completely serious.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

"Everybody duck and cover!" Thalia shouted from her seat with a smile, though she did not duck down.

"Hey, what's wrong with my advice?" Honestly, I have helped people before.

"Your advice almost always includes doing something extremely dangerous!" Nico nodded along with my cousin, Thalia.

"Well, the only times I have needed to give anybody good advice is when we are in a bad situation, like war, the labyrinth, or a fight of some sort. Really the only advice I can give someone there that would actually help is going to be dangerous." I really meant it. Ever since I had come to camp I was constantly in life-or-death situations.

Thalia and Nico were both quiet for a moment, considering it. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I never really thought about it that way."

My face lifted in a triumphant smile, "See Wise Girl! I am too smart!"

"I know, you just don't always show it to other people," Annabeth said. Since we had all quieted down, I suppose the Olympians took this as a signal to keep reading.

**Close this book right now.** **Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Well, so far everybody in this room has done pretty well!" After all, we have made it to 16.

Annabeth gasped and looked at me with a fake (but partially serious, to me) horrified look, "Don't jinx it Percy! I plan to make it to at least 60. I will have kids, and they will grow up with me knowing them!"

Since all of the demigods were already on the floor, Annabeth left my side for a moment so that she could spread out on the floor with her head on my shoulder, we were both laying down now. "Alright then, I suppose that I won't ever talk about how our little group beat all of the odds against us and survived to the age of 16."

"Good. Now be quiet so that I can listen. You've never told me about what life was like before you came to camp. Just how much you loved your mother, which is good. So shut up."

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you. Don't say I didn't warn you. **

"Well, it's a little too late for us! Hey, can we have a break after this chapter? I am sooo bored!"

"We just started reading Leo! So that is a no, you can fiddle with some of your machines if you have to," Piper added just a little power into her voice. She wanted to hear about the missing camper, and Leo interrupted the peaceful time she was having with Jason's arm around her and them both listening to Zeus read. Surprisingly, none of the gods had said anything about the story yet. Most of them probably weren't even listening.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.** **Am I a troubled kid? **

"I have been told that by several people, mostly the therapist that the school assigned to every student, the most." Percy said slowly, his lids dropping slightly. He must be close to sleep, though nobody in the room could guess why, because it was just two hours before lunch, so he shouldn't be tired yet.

"Don't worry Percy. Most demigods are like that. Just look at Leo." Annabeth reassured Percy.

"Good point Annabeth!"

"Hey!"

**Yeah. You could say that. I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, **

"It got much better after that! And now that we are here it is even better." Percy tilted his head so that he could look at Annabeth when he said it, but there was an underlying tone of sadness in his usually happy voice. The gods, Jason, Leo, and Piper caught it. Thalia and Nico did not. They were just too happy at having their best friends back to notice.

**but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental case kids and few teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

**I know- sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy bread and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep. I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. Boy, was I wrong. **

"Is Mr. Brunner Chiron? And why would you get into trouble if you didn't do anything Percy?" Jason really didn't see why he would get into trouble; therefore it showed that he obviously didn't know Percy.

"Yeah, it's Chiron. I always have that feeling. I always get expelled, trouble always finds me so I have come to expect it." Percy's voice was getting lower and slower.

**See bad things happen to me on field trips.**

**Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I has this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool. I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took and unplanned swim. And the time before that...Well, you get the idea. This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Maybe you should have called in sick that day so that you wouldn't have to go," suggested Hermes. Of course he was the one to figure a way out of a dreaded field trip.

"Now that I think about it… Why didn't **I** think of that?" Percy woke up a lot more; he must have really not wanted to go on that field trip. Poseidon was really wanting to know what went on that was so terrible. Nobody answered Percy. The figured it was a rhetorical question. They didn't know that Percy actually wanted an answer.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades because he was the only six grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension-if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Those are the worst teachers." Apollo sympathized with Percy.

"How do you know? I have been your only teacher Apollo." Athena was puzzled.

"I know."

"Hey!"

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"Go Grover!" Nico and Thalia cheered.

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"Good idea, I was able to take it out on her later." Percy smirked.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens." Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he has to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"Is that who I think it is? If so I really want people to start being quiet. I want to know how everything started! And when the big thing happens, everybody has to be quiet. And I mean it." Annabeth pulled her knife from the secret place that she kept it in (which Percy knew where it was) and started threateningly twirling it between her fingers in a way that only a true master could do.

"Alright Annabeth, we will be quiet." Everybody chorused together. None of the demigods wanted to experience the wrath of Annabeth, the ones who had didn't want to experience it again. **(A/N: I will probably only put in reactions to this for a while because nobody wants to get on the wrong side of Annabeth. Just in case you didn't get it or thought it wasn't serious. And I didn't do it just because I am lazy. I want to make it clear that everybody respects Annabeth and Percy./)**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

Thalia looked like she really wanted to say something about what Grover said, but held it back, knowing that Annabeth was serious. Poseidon stiffened in his chair. It had been a while since he had kids and he didn't want Percy to die. He had a lot going for him, Poseidon knew it. You could call it a father's intuition.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "Did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.**

**"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

All of the older gods cringed greatly at this.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied, "And he did this because..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

Zeus kept grumbling about how disrespectful and uncaring demigods were and how he deserved more than that. Everyone else tried to ignore him, but couldn't help thinking that he sounded like the stereotypical old man that lived at the end of the street and griped to everyone that walked by.

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife his baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sister-"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued,"and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Mr. Brunner said,"to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"It was pretty loud….. and bright." Percy smirked, remembering how annoying it was.

"Percy, I said everybody had to be quiet."

"Sorry, just had to say that." Jason, Piper, and Leo stared at Percy in amazement. When they were at camp and Annabeth gave such a serious order, she expected it to be followed. Otherwise you would have to face Annabeth. Why didn't Percy have to? No one had ever been spared before.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

Everyone in the room had a knowing smirk on their faces. Apparently the gods were listening.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

All of the demigods in the room could quite easily tell you this answer now. They had all been through enough, especially Percy and Annabeth. The gods wanted to know why Chiron would ask such a question. He didn't know of his heritage, so how could Percy know the answer to that?

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartartus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"I would disgorge anything in my stomach if anybody had fed be such a foul mixture, too." Apollo and Hermes had faces on that showed they were completely serious.

Annabeth glared at them. "Quiet."

Both Hermes and Apollo decided that being quiet was the best option. They only had to look at Annabeth to know that she wasn't all that afraid of them, and that she thought she would at least get in some good shots and be able to defend herself from them. Percy wrapped his arm tighter around her waist. He held her back. They both knew that this wasn't a good reason to get worked up.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Most boys aren't acting, they just are." Thalia stated matter of factly.

"What do you mean most? You are my lieutenant, you should know that." Artemis didn't understand how she could have replaced Zoe with someone that wasn't strong on the belief that all men were slimy, ugly creatures.

"Well, I know that now you believe that all men are the same, but a few certain men have proved to both of us that not all are the same. There are still the rare few that aren't half bad." Thalia explained to Artemis. She really hoped Artemis would understand because she would not be made to ignore her cousins because that past Artemis didn't feel that same way as the future Artemis.

"Yeah, you don't think I am that bad. You trust me and Nico around Thalia and your Hunters." I gave Artemis and example, to help her understand the type of person that Thalia was talking about.

"Hmmm, I'm not sure if I like this. My lieutenant shouldn't have this opinion about men." Nobody replied to Artemis's statement. She needed to think about it for a while. Maybe she would understand in a book or two.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." I knew that was coming.**

"You couldn't possibly have seen that coming! You are not the god of prophecies in the future are you?" Apollo joked around with me in a friendly way, not arrogant or anything like that.

I decided to reply with, "No, but if it happens enough I suppose you start to expect it."

"Touche."

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could been a thousand years old and had seen everything.** **"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said," is vitally important.**

"Don't say a word. I have let it slip….. for a few minutes, but now I really mean it. That means the rest of this chapter at least." Annabeth told everyone, yawning loudly, as she saw several of the people in the room begin to open their mouths in reply to that last statement. After that they decided that what they were going to say was not vitally important at the moment. Athena admired the courage and strength her daughter was showing, even if she was incredibly too close for her personal like to that sea spawn.

**I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry; this guy pushed me so hard. I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted, "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshiped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention defect disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No- he didn't expect me to as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"That is pretty hard. He still has us do that back at camp when he decides to teach the lesson. It's pretty easy if he lets us do it in ancient Greek, but sometimes he only lets us do it in English because he says 'It will help you improve your mortal future, so you need to get used to it while you can.' It takes everyone forever if we have to do it that way. Oh! He also-" Leo had started rambling on about all the things Chiron made them do in their classes until he was abruptly interrupted by Jason.

"Dude, we know and I am pretty sure the gods already know how Chiron teaches us. What is that in your hand?" Jason had just noticed that Leo was fiddling with something resting in the middle of his cupped hands. It was extremely small and looked like it was a sleek black iron material.

"Oh! This is just the world's smallest hovering camera. You can take pictures or video, you just decide when to stop and start it when you want with this little remote here. It also does some other things, but you do not need to know about that right now." Leo partially informed them. Hephaestus nodded his approval. He thought that Leo was a really promising inventor and mechanic. Maybe they could share ideas sometime. It would be nice to talk to one of his sons like that.

"Has anybody noticed that Annabeth hasn't called us out for talking about off topic things during the story?" Piper wanted to know if it was just her. Everybody else nodded in agreement and looked over to Percy and Annabeth. They were both asleep. Annabeth had her head on Percy's chest and his right arm was under her neck so it could secure itself to her right shoulder and act as a pillow for her head. His left arm was laying peacefully on the middle of his stomach.

"Should we wake them up? I mean, Annabeth really wanted to know what happened." Nico wasn't sure which was best. They had both seemed like they were tired, but Annabeth **Had** wanted to know what occurred.

"We need to wake them up. Percy is waaaaay too close to my daughter." Athena braced her arms on her throne armrests, prepared to stand up and walk over to them to wake them up, when a voice stopped her.

"No. Don't wake them. I know you saw how tired they were even after they just woke up. They need the rest. Percy can always tell her at lunch after the chapter. Or we can just give her the book and she can read it herself later today. She wouldn't mind that, she is your daughter after all. Percy already knows what happened during the book, considering he lived it. Just leave them alone for now Athena, you can talk to them about it later tonight." Poseidon reasoned with Athena. Everyone could tell that she was not happy about it, but she did want was the best for her daughter, so she backed down for now and promised herself she would talk to Annabeth about it when they were done for the day.

After Athena sat down and didn't say anything, Zeus took it as an opportunity to continue. Nico and Thalia started looking at Percy and Annabeth in worry, however. Both of them had begun to twitch slightly in their sleep. Just a finger or two at a time.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girls' funeral.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city.** **I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't think we were from that school- the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"That doesn't normally work, but why would he care if he didn't know any of the people walking by him. It's not like he needed to worry about them. If they make a decision about him based on the fact that he didn't go to the best school, then they aren't worth his time." A few of the more mature gods and demigods in the room nodded their heads in approval to Piper's mini speech.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said," Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean- I'm not a genius."**

Don't think of it like that Percy, you are just a genius in a different way. You know how to make friends and take care of people, and how to fight a war and command an army. School doesn't teach you that. Thalia knew that Percy was never considered the star student, even though he was an amazing person and friend.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"Yeah, Grover didn't catch on that time." Thalia and Nico smiled at that. They both knew how Grover was with food. It was actually quite funny most of the time.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

"Of course you did. You just have to help everybody before yourself." Nico and Thalia laughed together, until Apollo spoke up.

"Who are you talking to? Percy is asleep and the only other option was the book."

"I was joking around, Percy didn't have to be awake for it to make sense to the people that know him. For example, the only ones in this room: Nico and I." Apollo must have taken that as an appropriate response because he waved with his hand for Zeus to continue with the reading.

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought of about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"It's good when someone thinks about their mother and what she would think instead of just what they think. Mother always knows best." Hera lectured the demigods around her, as if she were Mother Goose and they were her ducklings. The demigods nodded while also giving her strange looks.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table. I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends —I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap. **

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"This must be the first time he has ever been able to control the water around him. He makes it sound like it has never before happened. But, since he is a son of Poseidon, shouldn't he have already displayed his control over water?" Athena had a contemplative look on her face. She turned to Poseidon, thinking he would be the one to answer the question, but when he opened his mouth to respond, Nico did instead.

"It probably is the first time. Percy's fatal flaw is personal loyalty. He can't stand it when he sees people he cares about or innocents in danger or being teased. Right now his first best friend was being made fun of, so he had a spike in his anger, so he released it and the water reacted to it. The water probably went after Nancy because she was the antagonist. And before you ask, I know this because he kind of explained it to me once. Percy said that his powers often react to his emotions. The sea is always changing, and so are his emotions. The sea also doesn't like to be restrained. Combine these two and you get all of these different emotions that want to break out and take control. Since Percy has become more powerful and realized why sometimes the water reacted around him he has been trying to control his emotions and actions more. He does struggle with it sometimes. Like he lost control when he fought with Thalia once. You will probably hear about it in the second or third book. Again, Percy explained this all to me. I've noticed Thalia is like that too. She just has more trouble with it sometimes." Nico gave such a thorough explanation and the fact that Percy was like that, just made everyone respect him more. Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus were the only gods in the rooms that really had to deal with that sort of thing happening with their powers and realms.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.** **She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"It's better that he tried than to just sit there and do nothing. Nice trying Grover. Just do better next time."

"Ummm, Dionysus, Grover isn't actually here. You are talking to a book." Apollo helpfully pointed out to Dionysus.

"Shut up Andrew."

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

Thalia and Nico shivered when Percy's glare was mentioned. Jason, Piper, and Leo got the feeling it was even better than Annabeth's, and they weren't sure how that was possible.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast? I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"That's actually a clever way to explain it to mortals, but it is actually not true for Percy. His brain is actually interpreting the situation correctly." Athena mused out loud to the rooms occupants that were not currently asleep.

"We know Athena." The rest of the occupants chorused together. Athena just huffed and waited for Zeus to begin the reading again.

**I wasn't so sure. I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.** **Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said. I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."** **I didn't know what she was talking about.**

Until this point everybody had been quiet. It was so confusing to everybody except for Athena that they just didn't bother asking what was going on.

"Okay, really, this is confusing. What is she talking about?" Hermes looked up from his phone to ask the room as a whole. Nobody could give him an answer except Athena, who wasn't going to tell, so he just sighed and went back to his phone.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"I hope my kids know about this, he could be really helpful in pranks and raids." Hermes smiled when he thought about what his kids were doing. They could always use more help to make an even better prank.

"You will not corrupt my son Hermes. His skills on that do not need to get much better."

"Sorry Uncle, but I'm going to have to break it to you. Percy helps design those pranks and raids with the Hermes kids all the time. The only cabin they don't his is the Athena cabin and my cabin. I think he is secretly scared I will zap him if he does. Which I will do, so don't try Hermes. You would be surprised how much power I can pack behind a lightning bolt when I am angry. Just ask Percy. The Hermes cabin also doesn't go after Percy. The whole camp is scared of him when he is angry with one of them. Which is rarely, he cares about EVERYONE there. You just don't want to do certain things. You will probably figure out what they are later." Jason, Piper, and Leo all just stared at Thalia with wide eyes and mouths. Then they started backing away.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.** **Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.** **Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"Even for a demigod, that is a good sign. Most would just be trying to make sense of everything right now. Since he is new to this. It is a sign that he will be a master swordsman. I am right, right?" Ares startled everybody. That was probably the first smart thing that didn't have to do with blood and gore that anybody had heard from Ares in quite a while.

"Yup. Percy is the best swordsman at camp. Probably in the last 300 years." Nico bragged about his cousin, since he was asleep and couldn't hear what Nico said. Percy didn't want Nico to brag about him all the time.

"Yeah, Piper, Leo, and I have all heard the stories." Jason informed the gods.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of ! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.** **Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"You didn't imagine it. The mist is just covering it up. You did a good job with that fury too." Jason complimented Percy.

"Percy is still asleep." Thalia just had to mention that to her brother.

"Oh. Yeah." Jason just looked sheepish.

**I went back had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

"The mist must have already taken care of the fact that Mrs. Dodds is no longer available to teach. I bet that is going to drive Percy insane!" Thalia and Nico began laughing to themselves.

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson.**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Well, that is all for this chapter. Is everyone ready for lunch?" Zeus asked and stood up. Not waiting for everybody to answer. He just walked out of the room, most likely headed to the large Olympus dining room.

"We will wake up Percy and Thalia. You guys can go on ahead." Thalia and Nico stayed behind while the rest of the gods nodded their heads and left the room. Although they noticed Poseidon and Athena hung back.

"We can help you. You need someone to lead you there in case you forgot from this morning."

"Alright." Was Nico and Thalia's simple reply as they both bent down to wake one of them.


End file.
